Babchuk Y. Prosodic Characteristics of Interjections in Modern English Discourse : Experimental Phonetic Research.

The paper presents the results of the phonetic analysis of prosodic characteristics of interjections in modern English discourse. The experimental corpus includes samples of quasi-spontaneous and spontaneous speech with respect to gender, age (younger than 20 years old, 20-40 years, 40-60 years old, older than 60), social status and ethnicity of informants. Interjections as prosodic markers of emotions include pitch, speech rate, intensity and voice quality. Male speakers have higher speech rate of fundamental frequency than female speakers. Female speakers demonstrate higher intensity. Older speakers have smaller speech rate, i.e. intensity decreases with age. Speech rate increases from high social status to the lowest one. Social status and class characteristics do make impact on timbre. The majority of speakers use neutral speech melody for interjections. The sound is stronger in the fifth formant. African Americans demonstrate higher intensity which stands for their expressiveness and emotionality.